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Truck driver Earliest Madir inspects his truck while waiting for a load at a truck stop in Atlanta.... [+] (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Google the term “truck driver shortage” and you’ll find an endless string of articles from various local newspapers lamenting the lack of people willing to carry the load in this essential link of the supply chain. In the U.S., the shortfall is estimated at around 50,000 drivers, and age distribution of the 850,000 currently on the road suggests it will get significantly worse in the next five to ten years.

The problem is not new. Bill Graves, who just retired as CEO of the American Trucking Associations (ATA), recently wrote: “When I first came to theAmerican Trucking Associations in 2003, among our industry’s top concerns were diesel costs, the driver shortage, insurance costs and security”. Much has changed since 2003, but the top of Graves’ current list of challenges is still a driver shortage. Why?

Commodity Labor

The root of the problem may be that too many supply chain executives still see trucking as an undifferentiated commodity bought almost exclusively on the basis of cost.

Over time, driver pay has closely mirrored inflation, with 2015 mean annual earnings of $43,410 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is not bad compared to average earnings for college graduates ($45,400) and it’s well above those who’ve only completed high school ($25,900).

And yet, turnover for full truckload fleets runs in the 90% range, which means most drivers quit in their first year. Maybe the combination of homesickness, licensing and regulatory hassle, financial responsibility and aggravation with road congestion merits a raise.

Looking at it from the customer back may point to a solution. LTL drivers generally work closer to home, often have regular customer drop locations and have both an incentive and an opportunity to develop a long-term career. They live and work closer to the customer.

The highest customer touch jobs in trucking may be in the parcel business, where earnings at UPS, for example, often exceed $70,000 per year. For many customers the UPS driver is like part of the family, with a rhythm not unlike the milkman of old. It’s even the career for sitcom character Doug in The King of Queens.

Consider also the professionalism of direct store delivery drivers for businesses like Frito-Lay and The Coca-Cola Company, who act as logisticians, merchandisers and account reps all in one. The same can be said of field technicians for businesses like Ecolab or Johnson Controls, where the truck is really an extension of the warehouse, factory and customer service desk on wheels.

Layer on top of these existing jobs the explosion in technology, including not only mobile devices tying into enterprise systems for inventory visibility and order management, but also internet of things devices on shelves, pallets and equipment, and you have a truck driver who’s an intimately demand-driven extension of your supply chain.

A Fork in the Road

Technology is quickly evolving in ways that make truck drivers a very important part of how a business delivers freight, but also how it solves problems at the point of customer contact. Such drivers will be a competitive advantage for those supply chains able to extend the job definition to encompass customer service as well as on-time delivery.

Urban transfer stations could be staffed with expert drivers skilled in city deliveries who might also act as direct store delivery types providing customer service with a smile. This would solve the tired driver problem and the lifestyle burden of time away from home.

Thinking of truck drivers as technology-enabled supply chain professionals could make for a steadily improving customer experience. It also might justify significantly higher pay and better jobs.

I direct SCM World’s cutting-edge, practitioner driven supply chain content and research, leveraging more than 20,000 senior practitioners within SCM World’s membership. As a research fellow at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, I shaped the direction of supply chain teaching for the next generation of business leaders. Prior to SCM World, I served as Group VP for Supply Chain at Gartner following the 2009 acquisition of AMR Research, where I was Chief Strategy Officer. In my 10-year career at AMR, I created the Supply Chain Top 25, wrote over 400 published articles as well as the book “Supply Chain Saves the World” and led industry discussions with business leaders and luminaries such as Bill Clinton, Colin Powell, Michael Eisner and T. Boone Pickens. I am a graduate of Boston College, Oxford University, and Stanford Business School.